Category Archives: Portugal

The company, formerly known as Number26, now offers accounts in 17 European countries. Bank-based mobile application extends its services to Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Slovenia.

Like the Atom Bank in the UK and GoBank in the United States, N26 is a fully mobile bank. Opening an account takes only eight minutes and this can be done by downloading the application on your device running iOS or Android. Customer identification is performed by a video call and requires to show your passport. After verification, the customer can transfer money to a free bank account and receive a MasterCard card.

The Bank currently operates in Germany, Austria, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Ireland and Slovakia. In France, the use of bank services is currently limited, but probably will be again fully open in February.

N26 has received a banking license in July and has acquired over 200 000 customers in eight markets. The Bank says that its goal is to provide services to all Europeans over the next few years.

Nearly 13 million people in the EU are unemployed for over a year – according to the latest quarterly review of the European Commission on employment. The economic recovery, which began in the spring of 2013, is still quite unstable and the prospects for employment are uncertain. However, in most sectors since mid-2013 employment increased by 0.2% in the first quarter and 0.3% in the second quarter of this year. Especially in the second quarter of this year, employment increased in a significant number of Member States. The increase in employment was recorded in Spain – by 0.7%, Portugal – 0.9%, Estonia – 1.2%, the UK and Poland by – 0.5% and Italy – by 0.2%. In case of France, employment has not changed for the third quarter in a row.

There increased the number of hours worked and for the first time since 2011 there has been a slight increase in the number of full-time employment contracts and an increase in youth employment. However, many new jobs are part-time work or temporary work, and the unemployment rate still slightly deviates from the highest level recorded in the past. In August, the unemployment rate in the EU was 10.2% (nearly 24.6 million people) and in the Euro area countries it was 11.5% (approx. 18.3 million people). Long-term unemployed represents a large and growing group of all the unemployed – nearly 13 million people remain out of work for over a year. In addition, one third of the unemployed are unemployed for over two years.

The situation in the labor market improved for young people because in most Member States the unemployment rate in this group has decreased significantly. In August in the Member Countries there were 21.6% unemployed people aged from 15 to 24, and in the Euro area countries – 23.3%. However, youth unemployment remains at very high levels in countries such as: Greece and Spain. Of those employed, almost half has a contract for a specified period and nearly one quarter works part time.

The European Commission suggests that Member States must take efforts to fill the assumptions of guarantee for young people and to help every young person in search for suitable employment or training opportunities, gaining experience or education dedicated to finding a job in the future.